Van Gogh, Dali and Khalo (otherwise known as lasers, jigsaws and nits)

Grab a couple of pre-schoolers and let them tell you what the pieces are all about.

That's what I did this week when I took my boys who are almost five and nearly three to Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond: The World Reimagined at the Art Gallery of WA.

Let me tell you, we didn't go because 'oh dah-ling we're so cultured and my sons have their own art showings in the works'. We went because I thought it might be a bit funny.

The exhibition includes 134 works from 96 artists and covers the 'isms' like Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism.

According to my boys, it was actually about lasers, jigsaws and nits.

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Vincent Van Gogh's The Olive Trees was the first painting we stopped at and Nash, my eldest, said it was a picture of a jungle where animals live. The poor animals, however, where haunted by one very scary ghost so we moved on quickly.

The critics say Salvador Dali's surrealist piece Illuminated Pleasures is meant to be about universal dreams and anxieties and these are projected in the boxes as though they might be different stories in a theatre.

Art critics say the piece was her first self-portrait after her divorce from her husband Diego so it depicts her having cut off the long hair he loved and without the feminine image he'd admired.

'Ew, she's got nits!' Nash said.

Admittedly we had a nit incident last week. The horrible little things were discovered on a trip to the hairdresser. Gross, right?

Some of the brightly coloured works were the kids' favourites like Saffa Super Matchbox by Raymond Hains. Nash thought it looked like two rows of gloves, until he changed his mind and said they were socks.

On further inspection Nash saw identified the coloured stripes as wings and decided this was a portrait of Buzz Lightyear. Van said it was 'Daddy'. (Should I tell my husband he's almost 200 years old?)

Once we were done with our art evaluations, we headed to the drawing room where we sat in front of mirrors to create our own self-portraits.

Nash and Van show off their artistic talents.

Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond: The World Reimagined is at AGWA until December. Adult tickets are $19, school kids are $9 and under-fives get in free.

The art gallery also runs free family fun days (take note, it's free once you've bought tickets to the exhibit) on the first Sunday of each month. They're for kids aged six and over and the next one is on Father's Day.